I would respectfully suggest that an officer be sent to that side of the Saline to see to the property, as there are wagons there which can be repaired easily, and iron, shot, shell, lead, and any quantity of mules and harness which has been picked up by the citizens.

B. ELLIOTT,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Battalion.

Captain MCARTHUR,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Numbers 75. Report of Brigadier General Samuel B. Maxey, C. S. Army, commanding Cavalry Division, of engagement at Poison Spring.

HEADQUARTERS MAXEY'S CAVALRY DIVISION,
Camp on Middle Camden Road, Ark., April 23, 1864.

COLONEL: I respectfully submit the following report of the operations of the troops I had the honor to command in the battle of Poison Spring on the 18th instant: Early on the morning of that day I was officially advised that a heavy train of forage wagons of the enemy was out on the old military road between Camden and Washington, supported by a considerable force of artillery, cavalry, and infantry. I was directed by the major-general commanding to proceed with my division without delay from my bivouac near Woodlawn to Lee's farm, on the Camden and Washington road, about 10 miles from Camden, at which point I would find other troops, and as senior officer to take command on my arrival. I put my division in motion and arrived at the point designated about 9 a. m., and found Brigadier-General Marmaduke with his cavalry command there and Brigadier-General Cabell with his getting in. General Marmaduke at once tendered the command to me. From him I learned the dispositions of the enemy, his probably strength, and the estimated size of the train. The disposition of our forces was soon made: Marmaduke's division on the right, Cabell's in the center, and Maxey's division (brought by me from the Indiana Territory), composed of Gano's Texas brigade, under Colonel Charles De Morse; Walker's Choctaw brigade, commanded by Colonel Tandy Walker; Krumbhaar's battery, command by Captain W. B. Krumbhaar, attached to Gano's brigade, on the left. Hughey's battery, attached to Cabell's command, was placed on Cabell's line on an elevation on the left of the road; Krumbhaar's battery in the center of Maxey's division.

The enemy occupied a position on favorable high ground in our front, with a portion of it extending down the slope toward the open ground south. The train was close dup on the road in rear of the enemy's line. Our line being formed, the plan was to move Maxey's division forward, the right of it passing sufficiently to the left of the old field south of the road to be concealed, the left to be moved forward so as to bring that division fronting the enemy, and to bring on the fight with that division, and to throw Cabell's division forward through the field into the fight so soon as Maxey's division became well engaged, and to move the forces on the right well forward, covering the road.

In compliance with this general plan, Maxey's division was at once